Plaid Cymru Assembly Member Neil McEvoy announced he will appeal his suspension from Cardiff council as he launched a stinging attack on Labour.

As he arrived at the Plaid Cymru party conference Mr McEvoy responded to the findings of a panel which said he was “bullying” towards a member of council staff.

Party chairman, Alun Ffred Jones, told the BBC that the one month suspension means Mr McEvoy will still be a candidate in May's local elections, and any decision to drop him would be for the local party - something which is not expected to happen.

Mr McEvoy was greeted by a dozen cheering supporters as he strongly denied the findings and attacked the Labour “one party state” in Wales.

He said the hearing was a “Labour show trial”.

Mr McEvoy said: “I couldn’t bring witnesses, there was no full disclosure of emails.

“My barrister tells me I have very good grounds for appeal, and I will be appealing.

“What this party is about is what we saw yesterday, and it’s dismantling the one party state in Wales.”

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The case before the independent panel centred on the fact that Mr McEvoy turned to a city finance team member Deborah Carter and said: “I can’t wait for May 2017 when the restructure of the council happens”.

Finance team member Deborah Carter had been at an eviction hearing at Cardiff’s civil justice centre in July 2015.

In that, Amanda Williams – a constituent of Mr McEvoy – was told by a judge she was being evicted from her council home after accumulating £3,700 of arrears.

As Mr McEvoy, Miss Williams as well as Ms Carter and her council colleague Dale Skinner left the courtroom, he made the comment about the council restructure.

Mr McEvoy said on Saturday: “What we should be doing is speaking to the family who were thrown out of their house, they were the victims in this. They were unfairly evicted.”

Mr McEvoy evaded questions over whether the party leader Leanne Wood would take action.

He said: “The only woman who was bullied that day was the poor single mother who was thrown out of her house. She is the victim in all this. Nobody else.

“I’m not calling on anyone to do anything.”

Mr McEvoy also dismissed calls for him to be barred from speaking at the conference by fellow Plaid Cymru AM Bethan Jenkins.

He said: “I think Bethan is Bethan really.”

Mr McEvoy said he did not want to comment on what would happen if he was suspended from the Plaid Cymru assembly group.

He said: “I think you can see the support from members, and I think what we need to do is confront the real bully in Wales, which is the Labour party.

Speaking about complaints within Plaid Cymru about the incident, Mr McEvoy said: “What they should be complaining about is the very corrupt process which I had to go though.

“The member of staff concerned has been used, she didn’t make a complaint, and the complaint was made by a Labour politician.”

The complaint was submitted to the public service ombudsman by Fairwater Labour Councillor Paul Mitchell.

Plaid Cymru are holding their party conference at The Riverfront in Newport, ahead of local elections in May.

Mr McEvoy said: “And it’s no coincidence this was done on the Plaid conference weekend. None at all.

“They ejected members of public during the day because it was embarrassing.

“You can’t have any kind of process when you can’t call witnesses and emails are not disclosed.

“Do I have any respect for that process? No. It’s a farce.”

He added: “It’s a distraction. The enemy is the Labour Party. We’re going to take over Cardiff council, change our city, change or capital, and Cardiff is going to be a much better place to live. That’s the focus.”

The independent panel did not accept an allegation that Mr McEvoy brought either the office of councillor or Cardiff council as a whole into disrepute.

Amid some confusion as to what impact a long suspension would have on Mr McEvoy’s ability to stand in May’s council election, they suspended him from his role as councillor for one month.